How about pulling the muscle in the back of your thigh whilst getting up from your office chair to go get dressed for the bike?
Well that’s how I started my ride today. What an absolute lemon. But yet again, as I have been exceedingly lucky with at the moment, this pain didn’t seem to affect my cycling.
Going into this Sweet Spot Session I was a little apprehensive. And that was before I pulled a muscle. See, this session would be 5 minutes at 225w, and 5m at 205w, repeated four times. Last time I did an SST session at a new FTP I really struggled. Would today be a repeat?
Paul Daniels
One trick I used to get me through today’s ride was having a look in the freezer pre-ride, spotting the kids ice cream cornetto selection, and deciding that a smarties cornet would be my reward for making it through the workout. Man, that’s living.
Early doors things felt alright. Probably better than last time. That was encouraging. The warm up certainly felt fairly laid back.
Getting into the meat of the first interval and I realised I’d need to calm down. My cadence was far too high to sustain for the next 40 minutes. I’d opted to watch a computer game replay on YouTube to take my mind of the work, and I have to say, that also really helped today.
The first two blocks went well enough, but I was starting to struggle by the third. I reckon I’ve really lost some form by not doing these sessions as frequently as I was doing previously. At one point I was doing an SST session every week, sometimes twice. These days it’s lucky to be once.
I had a weird ANT+ drop out through one interval which really screwed me up. I never stopped pedalling but Zwift definitely thought I had. That sucked. What a waste of effort. Fortunately it picked back up again with no intervention on my part. I’ve had more technical issues since moving rooms than I ever had before.
The third “on” interval was a struggle to keep a high cadence. The only thing keeping me going was thinking the next time I did the “on” block, it would be the last one. Thank the Lord.
And as ever I didn’t find the last block as difficult as the first. Strange that. All mental this cycling lark. In more ways than one.
Anyway, aside from that, the day hasn’t been great. Productive, but still frustrating on the jobs front. That’s really messing with my head still. I’ve resolved to buy myself some new cycling kit as a reward for finally finding a new job – whenever that will be. I want at least a couple of jerseys, and heck, I’ve even been contemplating a new bike. Which is stupid, I know, but hey, that’s life.
I still need to find some time to have a play about with GTA 5 Bike. But with the release and build up of the new Tour de France map / routes ahead of this weekend, Zwift might have done just enough to keep me from straying too far just yet. Dastardly.
